Opinion: Letter to the Editor: Understands Alexandria

As a longtime Alexandrian, I feel compelled to speak out about the upcoming mayoral election on June 12. Mayor Allison Silberberg has been outstanding and is the only candidate with a sensible approach to balance the needs of citizens and businesses to meet the future.

After watching her in action for the past three years, it is clear that she is citizen-focused, an advocate for smart and thoughtful development, an advocate for our quality of life, and is dedicated to preserving the rich history and character of our city. She understands what makes Alexandria such a special community, and doesn’t want to sacrifice its character to transform it into another faceless urban city.

I applaud her for her priorities, her vision and courage she has shown repeatedly. She pushed the city to finally address all four of our sewer outfalls to protect our waterways and the Potomac, a priority that languished under previous mayors. She asks tough questions about development projects at Council meetings (at least someone is). She listens to citizen concerns. She has been pushing an aggressive tree-planting program to increase our tree canopy, and will work to restore the dedicated funding for the Open Space Fund, which her opponent led the way to eliminate. She advocated to maintain sufficient parking in Old Town and Del Ray (as opposed to reducing the amount of parking for residents and small businesses). She is fiscally responsible, which is necessary to keep taxes in check and to maintain our AAA bond rating.

Mayor Silberberg cares deeply about the people of our city and wants to protect our wonderful city while moving us forward. I’m with her.